The Goodyear Blimp is now flyable in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

The Goodyear Blimp has landed in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 — or rather, floated in. The iconic helium airship is now available to fly in the sim, arriving alongside World Update 22: US National Parks.

The in-sim Blimp is modeled on the real-world Zeppelin NT (New Technology) airship, the semi-rigid design Goodyear adopted for its fleet in 2014. It runs 246 feet long, tops out at 73 mph, has a 600-mile range, and can stay airborne for over 22 hours. The model is specifically based on Wingfoot Two, and Goodyear's Chief Pilot of Training & Safety Standards Adam Basaran says the recreation is spot-on — right down to the LED sign keyboard tucked in the left-side pilot storage cubby. He also called out the material textures as accurately captured, and suggested players try hovering over a stadium to get the full suspended-in-space feeling the real aircraft delivers at events. Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann framed the timing as deliberate: the Blimp pairs naturally with World Update 22's 36 National Parks and Monuments, letting players drift over places like Death Valley, Olympic National Park, Acadia, and Mount Hood National Forest at the kind of slow cruising speed that actually lets you take it all in.

The Goodyear Blimp has been a fixture of American sports and pop culture for decades, most visibly hovering above NFL games and major outdoor events. The real aircraft is a Zeppelin NT variant — a carbon-fiber-and-aluminum frame with computer-controlled flight surfaces, three vectored-thrust engines, and fly-by-wire controls, carrying up to 14 people in its gondola. Goodyear's history with airships stretches back to the early 1900s, when the same rubberized materials used for tires were repurposed for military balloons and eventually civilian blimps. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 has been steadily expanding its aircraft and scenery roster since launch, and the Blimp represents a notably different kind of flying experience compared to the jets and prop planes that dominate most sim libraries.

The Blimp is available now in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and with World Update 22's National Parks scenery already live, there's no shortage of scenic routes to plan.